Hey fellow Harbephiles! Thought I'd throw my hat into the ring. I own a pair of HLM Mk1's, from the days when Dudley Harwood was still at the helm. I believe these are the early iteration of what we know today as SHL's.
I love them. Obviously, given their age (almost 40 yrs old) I don't hammer them, but having said that, they still make big music. That's their superpower - music. I've heard many speakers that sound more... hi-fi, but (IMHO) few can hold a candle to Harbeth's when it comes to what matters - music. Voice is simply sublime. And dynamics, detail, transparency are all there in spades. I have paired them with a number of amps, mostly older/vintage, but some newer ones two, and they sound great with all of them, better with some. . I even had them running on a T-Amp for a while and although the little chap couldn't quite match the bigger boys for sheer presence and 'grip' it still sounded lovely and musical.
They handle vinyl, CD and streaming with aplomb, but do have a tendency to reveal poor source or material for what it is.
My only real criticism is their tweakability factor - a big fat zero. I love to fiddle and give my kit as much help as possible to sound its best (last count I had twelve boxes of modelling clay on my tweaky-things shelf). I opened the Harbeths up (not advisable if you've just forked out a wodge of £££ for a pair. Trust me they are far more impressive to look at on the outside ) and after messing a bit with damping material, returned them to their virgin state, poured myself a wihisky and sulked. My "magic touch" only served to spoil their sonic delivery.
Lesson learned, I now just enjoy them. And boy, do I enjoy them. I'll dig out some pics of them in my old setup and put them up if anyone's interested?